Phelim Donlon Playwright’s Bursary and Residency is an initiative of Irish Theatre Institute in association with Tyrone Guthrie Centre. The bursary was created in 2015 in honour of Phelim Donlon, former Drama Officer at the Arts Council and a dedicated member of the first Irish Theatre Institute PLAYOGRAPHYIreland Advisory Panel, in acknowledgement of his valued contribution to Irish theatre. For more information on Phelim Donlon see People of Irish Theatre.
Three artists are shortlisted. The award comprises an ITI writers’ bursary of €2,000 and a 2 weeks’ fully resourced residency in Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig. The shortlisted artists will each receive €500. An open call is made annually to playwrights with at least one full-length play staged by a recognised professional production company/producer.
Applications for 2024 opened in early January and closed in February.
Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Annaghmakerrig
The overarching policy principle of the Tyrone Guthrie Centre (TGC) is to provide the conditions in which artists can focus exclusively and for extended periods on the creation and development of their work.
Previous recipients of the award are Fiona Doyle (2015/16), Carys D. Coburn (2016/17), Amy Conroy (2017/18), Karen Cogan (2018/19), Sonya Kelly (2019/20), Stephen Jones (2020/21), John O’Donovan (2021/22) and Caitriona Daly (2022/23). The current recipients are Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney.
Recipients
Carys D. Coburn
Carys D. Coburn is a writer based in Dublin. Their work has won praise for its innovative use of language and playful approach to form, blurring the line between poetry and drama. Plays include Boys and Girls (Dublin Fringe 2013, winner of the Fishamble Best New Writing Award, nominated for the Stewart Parker Trust Award); Blackcatfishmusketeer (Dublin Fringe 2016, Edinburgh Fringe 2017); this is a room… (Dublin Theatre Festival 2017). They are a collaborating writer with Malaprop Theatre, winners of the 2015 Spirit of Fringe Award for Love+. With them they have co-written Jericho (Bewleys Cafe Theatre) and Everything Not Saved (Dublin Fringe 2017). They were awarded the 2017 Verity Bargate Award for their play Citysong.
Karen Cogan
Karen Cogan’s first play The Half Of It won the Stewart Parker Award 2017 and the First Fortnight Award 2017. The Half Of It was nominated for five Fringe Awards. Drip Feed was shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award and nominated for an Offie award for Best Performance Piece. Drip Feed played Edinburgh, Project Arts Centre and Soho Theatre and was produced by Soho Theatre and Fishamble: The New Play Company. Drip Feed has been commissioned for television by Witchery. Karen was chosen out of 3000 writers to be on Channel 4’s 4Screenwriting programme 2019. Karen’s work has been shortlisted for The Red Planet Prize, the BBC Writers Room, The Adopt-A-Playwright Award, Fishamble’s A Play For Ireland and BBC NI The Break series. Karen is The Hospital Club’s Theatre Emerging Creative for 2018. She has spoken on panels at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival and The Guilty Feminist. Karen trained as an actor at RADA.
Amy Conroy
Amy Conroy is an actor, playwright, theatre maker and Artistic Director of HotForTheatre. Her first stage play, I ♥ Alice ♥ I, won the Fishamble Award for New Writing in the 2010 Dublin Fringe Festival and has enjoyed sold out runs nationally and internationally. It was broadcast on RTE Radio One, has been translated and performed in Poland, Italy and Iceland and is published by Oberon Books. Her second show, Eternal Rising of the Sun, won the Best Female Performer Award when it premiered at Dublin Fringe Festival 2011 and subsequently earned her a nomination for Best Actress in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2011. In September 2013, Amy and her company HotForTheatre presented Break, which combined spoken word, music and text. Luck Just Kissed You Hello premiered at the Mick Lally Theatre as part of the Galway International Arts Festival 2015, before a sell-out run in Dublin Theatre Festival later the same year, and was nominated for Best New Play in the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2016 and toured nationally. Amy is an ITI Six in the Attic alumni and is a writer in residence with Rough Magic Theatre Company.
Fiona Doyle
Fiona Doyle’s work in theatre includes Coolatully (winner of the 2014 Papatango New Writing Prize) at the Finborough Theatre in London and for Mead Theatre Lab in Washington DC; Deluge (winner of the 2014 Eamon Keane Full-Length Play Award) at Hampstead Theatre Downstairs; The Annihilation of Jessie Leadbeater (ALRA); Abigail (The Bunker Theatre); The Ceasefire Babies (NT Connections 2018); and Ms Y (short) as part of the Young Vic’s Five Plays. Fiona is a recipient of a 2018 Fellowship from the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, a Cill Rialaig Artist’s residency, a Peggy Ramsay Foundation grant, and has been on attachment at the National Theatre Studio. Her play, The Strange Death of John Doe, was a finalist for the 2018 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Her work is published by Nick Hern Books and Methuen Drama.
Stephen Jones
Stephen is an Actor and Writer from Tallaght. Stephen began writing plays at University College Dublin. His first professional play ‘From Eden’ was first staged in 2015 at Theatre Upstairs. For this play, Stephen was the recipient of the Stewart Parker Trust/BBC Northern Ireland Radio Drama Award. The play was adapted for radio by RTÉ Drama on One and has represented Ireland in several international competitions. Stephen’s second play ‘Northern Lights’ also premiered at Theatre Upstairs. It was nominated for ‘Best New Play’ at the 2019 Irish Times Theatre Awards and the Irish Writer’s Guild ‘Zebbie’ Awards. ‘Northern Lights’ was also adapted for radio by RTÉ Drama on One and received an award at the New York Radio Festival. In mid-2020, Stephen was commissioned by RTÉ Radio One to write a short play about the Covid-19 Lockdown. ‘Adapting’ – the resulting piece was aired shortly afterwards. Stephen is a member of Irish Institute’s ‘Six in the Attic’ Programme. His latest play ‘Finisterre’ was recently completed as part of a workshop programme developed in conjunction with ITI and Argentinian Playwright Javier Daulte. Stephen was recently commissioned by The Abbey Theatre as part of their ‘Engine Room’ development programme to work on his play ‘The Couple of Peace’. In 2021, he will work in association with GlassMask Theatre Company on his play ‘Summerhill’. Stephen has also been commissioned by Deadpan Productions and RTÉ to adapt ‘Northern Lights’ into a six-part series for television.
Sonya Kelly
Sonya Kelly’s debut solo play, The Wheelchair on My Face, a Show in a Bag with Irish Theatre Institute(ITI), Fishamble and Dublin Fringe Festival toured for two years. It won a Scotsman Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012, and a Critics’ Pick in the New York Times. Her second play, How To Keep An Alien, was produced by Rough Magic and won Best Production at the Dublin Fringe, 2014. It toured the Brisbane Festival, Traverse in Edinburgh, Soho Theatre, The Irish Arts Center in New York, and the Auckland Arts Festival in New Zealand. Sonya’s short play, The Pet Sitter was commissioned by the Abbey Theatre as part of their Future Tense series. Her play, Furniture, produced by Druid Theatre premiered at Galway International Arts Festival in 2018 and was revived for an extensive national tour. Furniture won a 2019 Irish Writers Guild Award and the 2018 Stewart Parker Trust Award. Sonya has also participated in a number of residencies and mentorship schemes including: ADVANCE with Rough Magic, desk space at Corn Exchange, Six in the Attic with ITI, Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris and NT Studio in London.
John O’Donovan
John O’Donovan is a playwright and screenwriter. His plays include If We Got Some More Cocaine I Could Show You How I Love You (Methuen Drama), Flights and Sink (both Nick Hern Books). He is one of UCD’s inaugural Creative Fellows where he is also an occasional lecturer and is under commission for a number of new theatre and television projects.
Caitríona Daly
Caitríona Daly is a playwright and screenwriter from Dublin. Previous works include: Duck Duck Goose (Winner, Writers Guild of Ireland Zebbie Award for Best Theatre Script 2021); Normal (nominated Fishamble New Writing Award 2017); and Test Dummy (nominated Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play 2016). She is currently under commission with the Abbey Theatre and is a writer for a continuing BBC Drama series.
Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney
Michael Patrick (writer/actor) and Oisín Kearney (writer/director) are a creative partnership working across Theatre, Radio, TV & Film, that make original work that is bursting with humour and heart, whilst having something important to say about life now. Their plays My Left Nut (now a BBC Three series), The Alternative (nominated Best New Play, Irish Times Theatre Awards), The Border Game have toured Ireland. They are alumni of ITI’s Virtual Attic, Bewley’s Cafe Theatre ‘Percolate’ New Writing group, Prime Cut’s REVEAL programme, BBC Writers’ Room Belfast Voices, The MAC’s Hatch & Scratch, and recipients of an Abbey Theatre Commemoration Bursary and the IASH/Traverse Creative Fellowship. They are represented by Curtis Brown.
